the website of the Cipollini Lab at Wright State University

Monthly Archives: August 2013

Spring and Summer 2013 brought lots of activity to the lab. First, Jonathan Ali defended his Undergraduate Honor’s thesis on “Effects of soil biota and rhizosphere extract from non-native Lonicera maackii on the native Impatiens capensis”. Jon is off to a graduate program in Toxicology at the University of Nebraska. Sam Davis had a tremendously productive Spring and early Summer in her search for direct and indirect effects of garlic mustard on a rare butterfly, the West Virginia White, Pieris virginiensis. In short, much of the previously anecdotal evidence suggesting that this butterfly is negatively affected by garlic mustard has been borne out in a statistically rigorous way. Chad Rigsby had another full season examining oviposition preferences of the Emerald Ash Borer and adds an important dimension to the extended resistance phenotype of resistant species of ash; they don’t get chosen for oviposition, at least when more susceptible species are around. Our bioassay to examine larval performance of EAB was also streamlined and used to produce some very good information on putative host resistance factors to this insect. We thank our excellent undergraduate assistant this summer, Jordan Browning, from Kettering College for all of her help. Finally, as the end of the Summer approaches, we look forward to welcoming Arony Muhit, an M.S, student from Bangladesh, to the lab for a Fall 2013 start.